Carlow Stone Centre was founded in 1980 by Patrick &
Teresa Nolan and set up in the current premises at Ballykealey, Ballon,
Co. Carlow with an office and showroom at Kennedy St, Carlow (formally
Walsh's Monumental Works).
The Nolans have been involved with the stone trade for four generations
as described in the article below.
Initially the Nolans produced monumental stonework and farm
working pieces such as granite stone rollers and gate piers. As time
passed the stone working applications changed and Carlow Stone Centre
produced stone and marble fire places and stone counter tops branching
out into more sophisticated architectural work such as stone work
on modern buildings, special architectural features to the hotel and
other commercial premises. This includes shop fronts, hotel foyers,
church altars, stairways and specially designed fireplaces & memorials.
Carlow Stone Centre also specialises in designing and constructing
unique pieces of stonework of a commerative nature using local and
imported stone from all over the world.
A History of Stone Masonry in Ballon
By Declan Nolan
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A crisp March morning in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, Thomas Francis Nolan emerges from his cottage
on Ballon Hill to begin his day’s work cutting and dressing
granite ashlar stones for a local authority bridge at Tullow,
Co. Carlow. The stones are cut and dressed on site, somewhere
down the fields perhaps, Rathrush or Moanmore, then transported
by ass and cart to their eventual destination. No pneumatic air
drills or diamond saws to assist the mason, those times were just
hard work and resolve with relatively primitive tools, metal punches,
chisels and wedges to split and dress the stone, which Thomas
and later his son John and grandsons Patsy, John (Noel), Tommy
and Jimmy later, had to dress at the fire before the day’s
work began cutting the stone.
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Thomas Francis Nolan
1847 to 1932
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| Thomas Nolan
(1847-1932) was the first known member of the Nolan family to practise
the trade in Ballon. He was involved in producing monuments and
general masonry for the building trade and farm work i.e. granite
rollers. Thomas Nolan was born on Ballon Hill in 1847 and lived
afterwards in Connaberry where he practised his trade. |
Monumental and stonemasonry is one of the oldest trades
in Ireland and indeed the world, dating back to pre-Christian times
in Ireland and before the great pyramids of Egypt, the massive Inca
cities of South America, the famous high crosses of Kells, Ahenny and
Clonmacnoise. It has been practised in Ballon since the mid 1800s by
the Nolan family and others in Co. Carlow. A county that is rich in
natural deposits of granite, limestone, quartz and sandstone. Beautiful
examples of stonework in Co. Carlow can be seen at the Garda barracks
in Ballon, Ballykealy House which was designed by William Cobden who
also designed St. Patrick’s College and Carlow Cathedral to mention
a few. The stone work for these would have been sourced locally, mostly
Carlow limestone and granite bedrock, which would have been brought
by horse and cart to the site and dressed by the stonemason to create
the final construction.
The photo shows Johnie Nolan of
Ballon
(1885 to 1971)
extracting
Carlow Granite.
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His son Johnny Nolan (1885-1971) was next to take
up the noble profession of cleaving, he was a quite man, an eccentric
and colourful character. He moved into a cottage on Ballon Hill
near the existing church. About 1920 he married Julia Murphy of
Myshall. They were married a short time when one evening Johnny,
having transacted a barter deal with a person for whom he had
done some stonework, returned home with a bag of herrings. He
emptied the contents of the bag onto the floor of the kitchen
to show his slightly bemused wife what was therein. The contents
were dispersed in every direction when Julia’s father sitting
in the corner smoking his pipe and surrounded by a deluge of fish
looked up and said “You’ll be an independent woman
with that man yet!”
Johnny and Julia Nolan later moved down to Main Street Ballon
which is now Lucy Nolan and Sons. It was a single storey cottage
at the time and work continued from there. Johnny and Julia Nolan
had seven children, three girls and four boys; Mary (May), Kathleen
(Kit), Sheila (Bunty), Tommy, Patsy, John (Noel) and Jimmy. Jimmy
and May went to live in Co. Kildare, Kit in Limerick and Sheila
emigrated to America. Tommy, Patsy Noel and Jimmy worked as young
men with their father at Ballon.
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| The work was tough and
energy consuming and one would have to be well fortified before
doing a day’s cleaving. Johnny in particular had a healthy
appetite. Although slight he was a wiry man and able to demolish
a feed at any given time. Another task that Nolans performed for
the farming community was splitting in situ the stones on the land
which were then removed by horse and cart. The land was later cleaned
and ploughed. The stones were often used afterwards in the making
of monuments or building stone by the cleaver. On one such excursion
Johnny and co. were commissioned to cut stones at Gorey, Co. Wexford
for a land clearing exercise by the local farmer. The duration of
this particular job was 4 to 5 days and given that a trip to Gorey
in those days would be the equivalent to a modern day trip to the
Balkans, accommodation was sought by the stone cutting team on their
arrival. The job proceeded according to schedule during which time
the land lady never ceased to be amazed by the amount of food the
main stone cutter was able to consume after his hard day’s
labour. When the job was concluded, the bill was duly presented
and upon receipt of payment she remarked “there’s one
thing sure and certain, there’s no money to be made from Jack
Nolan o’ Ballon.” |
Johnny with sons Noel & Jimmy |
Time passed on and soon Tommy Nolan emigrated to America where he went
into partnership with another man in the bar business, Larry Nangle
of Kilbride. Patsy went to England with his wife Teresa in 1952 and
stayed for eleven years. John (Noel) and Jimmy stayed at home with Johnny
working the same way as had been done for countless generations, producing
hand dressed items such as the Rathoe gate piers, which were cut for
the princely sum of £40 and took 6 months to finish. They produced
countless granite monuments and granite field rollers which Johnny had
a habit of leaving high in the middle and when remarked by the farmer
Johnny would reply “easy to turn on the headland though”
Patsy Nolan returned home from England in 1963 and lived in Cappagh
where he also set up working for himself in the monumental and stone
trade while Johnny, Noel and Jimmy worked at Main Street, Ballon. Although
they worked separately, they still did some jobs together and by this
time technology in Ireland was starting to change the way the trade
was carried out, there were saws for cutting, compressed air hammers
for chisel work and by the early seventies even an Italian incimar lettering
machine, for inscribing headstones, which Patsy Nolan purchased and
operated at his works at Cappagh from where he lettered headstones for
trade all over the country.
Jimmy Nolan married and moved to Wexford, Tommy Nolan returned from
America and settled in Wexford Town where they both set up as Nolan’s
Monumentals.
Johnny and sons had a peculiar pre-occupation from the original trade
of stone cutting which was the netting of the lapwing and golden plover
birds as a supplementary source of income and perhaps a route of effecting
an escape from the toils of the real and economically gruelling world
of the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s. This was done by an unorthodox apparatus
known as the “plover net” which was constructed of spring
boards, netting shoes and roping to a plan which was unknown to most
people at the time, only those so disposed to the activity. This exercise
took place during the winter months when the plovers migrated from the
more northerly regions to Ireland to feed on the open fields and flew
in flocks of 10 to 100 birds. The trick was to get the birds to land
on the net pre-set on the ground below. The birds were whistled down
with a special whistle and a decoy made by Johnny or Patsy from bone
and when the unsuspecting creatures were just about to touch down the
net was sprung by pulling a rope which was connected to the net and
spring boards and the unfortunate birds were trapped, perhaps up to
a hundred or could be caught in one entrapment. The birds were a delicacy
at the time and were sold to houses of the gentry and restaurants of
the county. They were sold in Dublin for the price 2/6.
Johnny Nolan died in 1971 and his son John (Noel) carried on the business
at Main Street Ballon where he later married his wife Lucy, they continued
the business. John (Noel) died in 1988. Today the business trades as
Lucy Nolan and Sons at Main Street Ballon.
Patsy Nolan and his wife Teresa moved their business to the old hall
on Ballon Hill in 1975 and moved from there to the site of the Midland
Dairy Ballykealey in 1980 where he founded Carlow Stone Centre Ltd.
with a showroom and premises at Kennedy Street Carlow, formerly Walshes
Monumental Works, Castlehill, Carlow.
Today Carlow Stone Centre Ltd at Ballykealy Ballon and Kennedy Street,
Carlow are run by the Nolan family. Declan Nolan, his wife Pauline,
sister Anita Dowling and brothers John and Dermot represent a direct
line of four generations of stone masons in Ballon producing all types
of stone products from the traditional head stones to architectural
special pieces, carved fireplaces in marble, limestone and granite kitchen
work tops to commercial stone cladding for modern buildings. They work
from largely indigenous Carlow limestone, granite and imported marble
and granites from all over the world with emphasis on home produced
stone encouraging local employment and craft. In the modern trading
environment stone has become a commodity obtainable from the cheaper
economies by use of the internet and modern intercontinental transportation
and logistics. With the emergence of the upturn in the Irish economy
especially since the 90s the stone market has grown considerably with
new markets for the large amount of finished stone products from the
low cost economies such as China and India. Activity has intensified
and expanded and with “a rising tide comes up all boats,”
the demand for the Irish home produced stone has increased also.
Irish granite from Carlow and limestone from Leighlin
Quarries is enjoying unprecedented sales at home and abroad. The trick
is to find the niche that suits your specific operation and capacity.
As Johnny Nolan used to say when observing the peculiarities of the
world.
“That God may save everyone.”
Patsy Nolan with son Declan
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